Rusted Eclipse

in the year 2041 a global catastrophe happened, also known as the Eclipse. at the start, it looked like a normal Eclipse, on 30th of April, a total solar eclipse occurred. but, when it ended… the sun, alongside all other known and unknown starts just vanished, as if it was never there. during the next weeks, the temperature on Earth dropped to the point where nothing could survive, and the entirety of human civilization was forced to go underground, closer to the planet’s core. Communication was sparse for two months, before all methods of communication were cut off. the so called “Dark Age” befell humanity. but, people, like roaches in the basement, adapted. they became smaller, thinner, their flesh turned pale, and their heads elongated. their eyes had vanished, but their hearing had only advanced. the mutations were ideal for the survival in the caves. but not all humans had mutated, some, but few, remained normal. these “normal” humans formed an alliance of underground shelters and bunkers called Global Shelter Union, or GSU for short. GSU had formed a whole network of tunnels, bringing people back into something more than just pockets of civilizations. GSU also started to hunt down the mutants to "cleanse our home.” but the mutants fought back. in the next 100 years, entire generations born and died in the caves, rarely seeing the surface during scavenging runs. in the year 2153 the known resources and mineral deposits depleted, forcing humanity to perform scavenging runs on the planet surface which remains frozen. and one day, on October 12, 12:51 one of those groups discovered a still intact spaceport. in the next five years the spaceport was moved underground and a rocket was built to send the humans off into space. Unfortunately, that did not end well. due to the complete lack of visual in space, caused by the lack of any light, the rocket, alongside 5 crewmembers crashed in an asteroid field, never to be seen again. the next launches were more successful, and a group of humans established a base on the lunar surface. there, mining operations were set up. few years later, in the year 2162, massive engines were build on the lunar surface, using them to position the moon at geological stable orbit, making possible a construction of a massive space elevator, leading from the lunar surface and onto the base on Earth. that, alongside the massive amounts of raw minerals founded on moon, made a technological and industrial boom on Earth. in the year 2170 first settlement was build on the Earth’s surface. in the course of the next years, humanity returned what was theirs, building massive megacities on the Earth’s surface. unfortunately, they overlooked one crucial thing. due to the lack of Solar gravity well, the planets began wandering off their orbit, and that included Earth. now, without even anybody noticing, the Earth was drifting alone, in space, with nothing but the cold, dark void. in the year 2210, when people started to live freely on the surface due to advanced technologies, the planet was picked up into a gravitational well of another, unknown planet. expeditions were send to the planet, but with no success. back on Earth, humanity changed. everything became very industrial. the prestige surface cities, were now dust filled, massive factories. the entire planet, basically became one gigantic factory. the factory was called “Dark Star”. the citizens of Dark Star weren’t civilians, they were workers, who spend their every day in the assembling lines or management offices. the air on the planet quickly became a mix of CO2 and small particles of rust and iron, making breathing impossible. the mutants that evolved from humans were used as basically tools. the mutants weren’t exactly smart, but had excellent physical shape from birth, able to lift twice as much as a human would. the mutants that were seen as nothing more than monsters became workers who worked 18 hours in the unforgiving environment. the humans changed too, but not physically. the factories and rust-brown sky became their religion. working in the factory was sacred to them. the managers, who were above the workers and managed the entirety of Dark Star took advantage of that. they became gods in the eyes of the workers, and opposing them was a mortal sin. any and all people who opposed the regime were send on the surface of the planet Earth was orbiting, the planet was called Ruby, after the red color of it’s surface. the society advanced, forming a culture based around industrialization. people, became resources. resources, became something precious. of course, rebel organization formed. the organisation that survived, was called Blood Rain. Blood Rain started to cause chaos around Dark Star, trying to free people from the endless work, and overthrow the managers. but, no matter how much they tried they could not do it, but they are still trying to. the Dark Star also was split into different regions, with every region having their own production. there were the Mechanical region, where all mechanical components were made. then, there was the Electrical region, where all electrical components were made. then, there was the Assembly Region, where everything was put in tools and other things. and lastly the Refining region, where ore that was transported from Moon via space elevator was refined for later use. all regions had their respective color, with Mechanical region being blue, Electrical region being green, Assembly region being red and Refining region being yellow. one day, the spaceport catches an unknown signal coming from Ruby and send a search party to the location in the signal. when the party arrived, they immediately established communication, and were the first to document the surface of the planet. and what the people saw, shocked them. the surface was Blood-red color, not because of any minerals or atmosphere, but because the planet was covered in ice, formed from blood of humans. when the search party returned, bringing a sample of ice, they found it that the blood, was identical to the blood of some of the still alive individuals. when another search party brought back one of the corpses found in the ice, the corpse was exact copy of a still alive human. but, that was a mistake. corpses started to appear in the streets of Dark Star, and the responding people, corpses of who were found in the streets, were walking on the Ruby’s surface. a massive group of engineers, managers, soldiers and scientists was send on the planet’s surface, establishing a massive megastructure called Monolith. the single purpose of Monolith was to find out what is the cause of the doublegangers. and… it was found. deep under the surface, the planet was entirely hollow, or so the scientists thought. when a person gets under the ice, the space may appear empty, but once they try to get back up, geological structures were appearing out of nowhere, as if the planet itself was preventing the person from exiting. one of the subjects send inside the planet, found it’s core. at the plane surface was a sphere of pure darkness, and it was alive. communication was established with the entity that called itself Architect, since it claimed to have created the entire universe. the Architect learned, and not long after, it knew how to manipulate the humans. it had became their single, immortal ruler who does not forgive and rules with a hand of steel.

back on Dark Star, advanced in genetics were made, creating brand new line of human mutants that were given name Aves, after their bird-like features. Aves were dumb, but very strong, being able to follow orders and not attack their handlers as they saw humans as their parents. after more bionical and genetic modifications, Aves became ultimate working power, being able to work day on end without rest, needing it only every 2 weeks. they were sold to every manager that wanted the production of their section increased. in the following years, Aves advanced, becoming more smart and stronger, now being on same intellectual level as normal humans. that led to the Aves building their own culture, within the walls of massive megabuildings that were their living space. the new generation of Aves was more resembling humans, but still had pail red skin, long, beak-like mouths, lacked eyes yet were able to see somehow, and were very slim yet strong, standing at 2 meters average. Aves formed their own state within Dark Star, with the approve of the Architect. the state was called Free Republic of Aves, or FRA for short. afterwards, the Aves and humans lived in symbiose, with humans helping with Aves’ fragile health due to the toxic environment. and Aves working in the endless factories on Dark Star. the technologies advanced too, and where machines were just tools, they became something more. advances in robotics were also made, and production of worker androids called Autonomous Working Unit or AWU was set up. AWU were special, 5 meter colossal machines built for operating entire factories on their own without any human help. AWU look like four legged androids, with no human features, with a long antenna on the top and hundreds of mechanical appendages hanging from the underside. yet, human labor wasn’t replaced completely. machines could not work everywhere, and humans were still forced to work, not that they opposed it due to their religion.

the overall setting is best described as Grim Dark Industrialism, with rust-red skies and endless factories. everything, including furniture, clothing and tools is very industrial, with no decorations, just cold, hard steel and components.

the clothing is very rugged, since the workers don’t care about comfort. every worker has identical grey body suit with their nametag on them to recognize the body in case of an incident. all workers also wear a full-body outersuit, with hermetical seals and pieces of rough, metallic plates that provides some protection. the outersuit was painted with the colors of the region the worker was in, no matter if it was Aves or human.

the climat on the planets was also harsh, with constant Magnetical storms on the surfices of Ruby, dust storms on Moon due to the numbers of excavations, and Rust storms on Earth.

back on Ruby, Monolith became it’s own country that, while still listening to Architect, actively despised the workers back on Earth and Moon. due to the monolith being filled with very educated people that worked as scientists, they distrusted and hated the workers, which resulted to countless conflicts. the Monolith elected it’s leader, Professor Alan Woe, the lead researcher on the origin of the Architect. the Monolith didn’t see Architect as god or creator of all, they saw it as an anomaly that needs to be studied. after an incident where one of the workers killed a scientist, the Monolith had enough and started a war against Dark Star. the war was primarily fought on surface of Ruby due to countless Dark Star mining outposts and complete aerial control of the Monolith, preventing Dark Star from invading Monolith head on.

the style of the Monolith is very similar, but with clean, white hallways and soft, blue lights. the culture inside the Monolith is interesting. the people there don’t believe in any form of god, seeing everything as just anomaly that needs to be studied. also, due to the extreme level of education, Monolith has the best technologies, with plasma rifles and very advanced exoskeletons capable of doing thrice as much as Dark Star’s industrial exoskeletons.

most of the people inside Monolith wear black sweaters, black jeans and white lab coats, with excuse for guards that constantly wear futuristic, white armor with sharp angles.